


Ink

by ThePuppetMaster



Series: Doctor Who Miniseries [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Fun, Gen, M/M, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Other, Runaway, my own characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-04 03:29:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2907653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePuppetMaster/pseuds/ThePuppetMaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marissa Carpenter is a girl of many talents. Useless talents, but talents. She can sing, but how does that help her? No boyfriend, dead end job - what will happen when she gets sent to Britain for a journalism assignment? What will happen when she finds a man with tattoos that moves? What will happen on her first run in with the Doctor?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Marissa Carpenter reached up and knocked gently on the door. It took a long time to open, and when it did a smell of smoke and vodka washed over her. Marissa coughed, but the woman at the door didn't seem phased by it. She was blonde, with her boobs half hanging out.

Marissa took a small breath through the mouth.

"Hello. Ms. Davies?"

"What do you want?"

Marissa got a whiff of the vodka and smoke and coughed again.

"I'm here to talk to you about the past few weeks? Rent rising?"

"I'm not interested."

"Ms. Davies -"

"I said I'm not interested, now get out!"

The door slammed in Marissa's face. Marissa held her breath until she got out of the building, then took a deep breath.

"I'll just make something up," she murmured, walking off and pulling her coat up over her shoulders. Her leather coat reached her waist, and after that was a black pencil skirt and then knee high boots. She had on a business shirt, a white button-up. She brushed her hair aside, her dark red pixie cut.

A small, insistent ringing came up from her jacket pocket and forced Marissa to pull it out with a groan.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Mar," Nathan's voice came from over the phone, "how was the chick, uh, Daniels, was it?"

"Davies," Marissa corrected, "and it sucked."

"What happened?"

"She refused to talk. She slammed the door in my face with a gust of vodka and cigarette smoke."

"Well, we have another assignment."

"Seriously? More?"

"There's been a request set out for us. Well, no. For Chris and Morgan."

Marissa fake gagged and got a laugh out of Nathan.

"They're busy on assignment in Florida so we got the pick."

"What's the assignment?"

"Britain. Something about an abnormality in London. We get to go check it out."

"We get to or we have to?"

"Well, seeing as how we don't have a choice, we have to."

Marissa groaned. "Is it at least good?"

"Define good."

"Interesting? What's the abnormality?"

"They didn't tell us."

Marissa sighed again as she reached the bus stop. "Alright. Maybe we should consider leaving this whole _Freelancing Journalism_ company and just joining the _New York Times."_

"Aw, but that's no fun."

"Nathan, you're a robot with a camera. The only time you're fun is when you're high."

_"One time, Marissa, on cough medicine! Let it go!"_

Marissa burst out laughing. "Whatever. I'll be at the apartment in a few minutes."

"Head to the airport. Our flight leaves at 5."

"Today?"

"Yeah. You're all packed already, just get over here."

Marissa checked her watch. "We're leaving in two hours?"

"Yeah. Get over here."

Marissa groaned again. "When we get back we're working for _New York Times,_ got it?"

 

"Sure. Whatever."

Marissa got on the bus and rode it all the way to the airport.

~~~

After a long bus ride and an even longer plane ride, Marissa and Nathan finally felt their ears pop as they landed in London. It took forever to get their luggage, and it was pretty early in the morning (Britain time) when they finally got to their hotel.

"What do you think?" Marissa asked as she unpacked. "Sleep it off or go explore?"

"I'm going to vote for sleep it off but it's useless to waste the day!" Nathan said it in a game-show voice. The kind Marissa hated.

Nathan was the embodiment of the things Marissa didn't like. He was taller than her, thinner than her (which wasn't at all offensive since he was a string bean with no muscle), and had stupid curly hair. He was rocking the "You can beat me up but my daddy will sue" look.

Marissa flopped onto the bed. Nathan sat down and rolled onto his side in a very calm way. Marissa scoffed.

"You're so stiff! You're no fun."

"Fun is a relative term. Useless, really."

"Get high again."

_"Let that go!"_

Marissa chuckled. "I'll never forget what you said to me when -"

"If you bring that up I swear -"

Marissa just laughed and sat up. "Get up and get your camera. Now."

As Marissa called a cab, Nathan dug out the directions to the person they were interviewing.

"He lives on Sullivan Boulevard. House 38."

They caught a cab to get there. The taxi driver was insanely _British,_ and Marissa was getting a little annoyed with the Cockney rhymes.

"No, I don't know what it means to not have a 'pot of glue', okay? I'm paying for a trip to 38 Sullivan Boulevard and _that's it._ Just get us there and don't annoy me."

"Feisty woman," the man said in his thick accent. He looked at Nathan in the mirror. "You go for that?"

Nathan chuckled into his hand. Marissa was outraged, to put it lightly. The man pulled over and announced that they had arrived. Marissa got out of the car with out paying and walked off without a second glance, dragging Nathan with her.

"House number 38 on Sullivan Boulevard. We're here."

Nathan grabbed Marissa's arm as she went stalking up to the front door. It was an apartment building, and 38 was a three story building, probably with more than one apartment.

"Wait wait wait wait wait wait -"

"What?" Marissa said, ripping her arm out of his grip. She was already ticked.

"What's the plan? Just barge right in?"

"Worked so far."

"And we've had, what, three jobs?"

"Fine. What's your approach?"

"We knock. Compliment. Be polite."

"I did that with Ms. Davies."

"Whatever."

Marissa walked up the steps to the door and knocked sarcastically. It kind of ruined the moment when the door fell in and slammed flat onto the floor inside.

They stared at it for a moment. Marissa took a step forward. "Well that was certainly unexpected."

She was smiling for some unknown reason. She didn't know why but she could smell an adventure, and this seemed like the place one would start. She had, of course, just knocked down a door, so this wasn't particularly a time to smile, but she was just the same.

A reason to smile came around the corner a second later, in the form of an amazingly hot man. He was tall, and hunky, with a hot jawline and amazing hair. She could practically see his muscles through his button up shirt.

He smiled flirtatiously and grabbed Marissa's hand.

"Captain Jack Harkness. Nice to meet you."


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, stop that."

Marissa got a taste of another British accent. This one was much less annoying than that stupid cockney guy, and very feminine. Marissa walked into the other room as Captain Jack Harkness looked Nathan up and down and did the same greeting.

Marissa saw the blonde woman with the clipboard standing in the back of the room, but that wasn't the first thing she noted. No, the thing that calls your attention is the huge, black stain on the floor, spreading in spikes to the walls, like a cartoon explosion. Marissa gave an audible gasp and the blonde woman looked at her, furrowing her brow.

"Who are you? What are you doing in here?"

There was a thud as Captain Jack Harkness strutted into the room. "No, you shouldn't be in here."

Nathan followed and said "Wow" in an almost bored tone when he saw the black stuff. He took a quick picture and Jack glared at him.

The blonde woman looked exasperated. "What are they doing here?"

"Eloise, calm down. The door literally fell at their feet."

The girl, Eloise shook her head. Marissa bent down and tentatively touched the black.

"Is this ink?"

"Yes, that's ink, and that's all. Now get out."

"Harsh," Marissa said raising her eyebrows. Eloise shook her head. "Look, lady, I'm an interviewer for a very important American newsletter... Nathan, what was it called?"

"I didn't get a name."

"Whatever. The point is, I'm not leaving here until I get a story to publish."

"I said get out. And I won't ask again." Eloise reached behind her back and slipped a small, blue, almost toy looking gun from her belt behind her waist. Her pencil skirt was tight on her thighs and her white blouse looked amazing in it, too.

"When did I give you permission to take the Starlight Pistol?" Jack said stepping forward. Eloise reddened and brushed her silvery blonde hair behind one ear. 

"You didn't."

Marissa leaned down and brushed her fingertips over the ink. "Wow..."

"Well I seem to recall that that's the rule. Ask for permission, Eloise, no one is aloud to just take the technology -"

Marissa yelped as the ink jumped up and wrapped around her finger. It spiraled up her arm, growing larger and larger, overtaking her entire arm and starting to spread over her chest. Jack picked up a small, yellow sponge and pressed it to the ink. The ink absorbed into it until it turned fully black, and then Jack dropped it.

Marissa was gasping for breath. She knew for a fact, though she didn't know how she was so sure, that she almost died right then and there. Nathan kept his distance, but Jack grabbed her by the shoulders and made her looked in the eye.

"Are you okay?"

Marissa nodded, still gasping for breath, but when she had calmed down the fear was replaced with rage.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?"

"Oh dear, it's back," Nathan said turning away and running his hand through his short, curly hair.

"I WANT TO KNOW -"

"Eloise? Starlight, please," Jack said, stepping away.

There was a small pop, a flash of yellow light, and Marissa felt a pain in her side. Then everything went dark.

~~~

"What are going to do about them?"

"Same thing we do to all of them."

"Jack, what if -"

"Be quiet Eloise, if you had just followed my orders this never would've happened."

Marissa heard it, but it was like it was far away, or underwater. Everything was dark. Were her eyes closed? Everything was numb. She tried to move, but found she couldn't. Her head hung limp on her chest.

"There has to be a way besides erasing their memories. Isn't that a little extreme?"

"No. It's not. In fact, it's a normality."

Marissa made an attempt to raise his head a little and felt a pain in the back of her neck. She let out a small groan and the arguing voices ceased.

"She's awake."

"I see that."

"What do we do about it?"

"Prepare the serum."

"Jack -"

They went back to arguing, but the voice that was arguing for Marissa was a man's voice, one she hadn't heard before.

"We can't just erase her memory. The ink on her arm isn't going to come off and when she wakes up she's going to want an actual explanation."

Wait - the ink? That came off on the sponge thing, right?

Marissa opened her eyes. "What'd you say about ink?"

"I have the serum, Jack," Eloise voices came. Marissa opened her eyes and saw Eloise walking over, her curly, silvery white hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

"Eloise, wait."

The boy, the boy Marissa hadn't seen before, walked quickly to her side and grabbed her arm. The boy was somewhat attractive, with shaggy, light brown hair and a bit of a goatee. He was tall, with a medium build, and a very messy look, but the curved sword at his waist made it pretty clear he wasn't to be messed with.

"Jack, we can't do this."

"Do you have a better suggestion, Neal?" Jack looked outraged and was yelling. Marissa glanced away from him and looked at her arm.

"How did this get back on me?" she stared at her arm. Her arm was black and shiny, and the ink was still on her arm from her hand to her elbow.

"Long story," the boy, Neal, said. "It was never fully off you. The sponge was never a full-on container for the stuff."

"What kind of ink was that anyway?"

Neal looked at Jack, who just rolled his eyes. Neal looked back at Marissa. "It puts off a high level of magnetism, something to do with the metal in it."

"There's metal in ink?"

"In that kind."

Marissa took a deep breath and tried to stand up, only to discover that was was duct taped down to a chair by her shoulders.

"Hey! Let me up!"

Jack shook his head. "Eloise, the serum."

"We have to get it off her first!" Neal interrupted, throwing himself in front of Eloise. "We cannot let her go off like this."

Jack stared at him. "This is all your sister's fault anyway."

Eloise looked hurt, but didn't even try to argue.

"I've already called in a specialist. Relax."

"Is this the same expert as last time?" Neal said, putting his hand to the sword at his waist.

Jack flashed him a dirty smile. "What? Hoping for another shot?"

Neal pushed him away and walked up the stairs to the back. "I'm straight!" he called over his shoulder.

"So are noodles until they get heated!" Jack yelled at him.

The was a snort and movement from Marissa's left, and She looked to see Nathan tied up like her.

"What'd I miss?"

"I was just telling about the time you got high," Marissa said, thinking fast. If she could keep him talking, maybe Jack wouldn't come at her with a needle.

"Really Marissa? Now?" Nathan looked like he could kill her, if he could even touch her.

"Well, you see, Nathan had just taken cough medicine -"

"I had a cold!" Nathan protested. Eloise scoffed in boredom, but Jack looked amused.

"I'm sure you did," Marissa continued, rolling her eyes, "but you still overdosed. You still got high."

"That's it? He got high?"

"Well it was what he did when he was high. I think I recall saying -"

"Marissa I swear -"

He stopped talking. A sound had come from out of nowhere. There was a gust of wind. Marissa felt the hair she had being thrown back in the wind. The grinding sound became louder. Marissa looked around for the source, and suddenly saw a large, blue box fading into existence. It said _POLICE CALL BOX._

Though she couldn't believe what she saw, Marissa managed to keep her bearings. She found a small lip in the duct tape and grasped it in her finger. It had to be a trick, right? A hologram? Ah, who cares, as long as she gets out.

It was a whole other ballgame when the door to the box opened from the inside and two people stepped out. One, a rather attractive blonde girl with a British accent was bantering with the other one, a rather attractive brown haired boy with a British accent.

"Wait, so, what does being ginger have to do with anything?" the blonde asked.

"Well, it's an old legend," the man said, smiling at her. Then he saw Jack. "I'll explain it later. Captain Jack Harkness!"

"Doctor!"

The men embraced, and then the blonde and Jack.

"It's good to see you Doctor, Rose."

The girl (Rose?) looked at Marissa. "Why are they tied up?"

"Because apparently I'm evil or something," Marissa said in a light mood. The girl, wearing her black boots, black leggings, black skirt, and red t-shirt came over and ripped the tape off.

"Wow, thanks," Marissa said, thankful. She stood up and ripped off Nathan's too.

The man was extremely... nerdy. He had on a blue pinstripe suit and a brown trench coat over that. He had spiky brown hair and was almost... cute. His red converse kind of ruined that, in my opinion.

"What's your name?" Rose asked.

"Marissa Carpenter," Marissa answered, holding her hand out. "And this is Nathan Strauss."

"Rose Tyler," Rose answered, shaking it. "That's the Doctor."

Marissa looked the man up and down.

"Doctor who?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Just the doctor."

The Doctor smiled and rocked back and forth on his feet. Marissa thought he looked like an absolute madman, but just shook her head.

"What's this on your arm?" Rose asked, reaching out for it. Marissa pulled away, out of her reach.

"I honestly don't know, but don't touch it."

"How can you not know what's on your own arm?"

"Because it's not my fault it's there," Marissa retorted, shooting a glare at Jack. "It's his. And he was all prepared to just erase my memory and let me go back to the world."

Rose joined Marissa in glaring at Jack and Jack rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. That's why the Doctor's here."

The Doctor walked over, pulling something out of the inside of his jacket. "What is it, Jack?"

"A kind of ink," Jack called over, walking away. "Eloise, pull up the schematics."

The Doctor pointed something at Marissa's arm, and Marissa lifted it up for him. A little light thingy lit up on the end and stuck out, making a futuristic sound. Marissa thought it was extremely annoying, and thankfully didn't make it continuous He just muttered to himself as he moved around, poking and prodding at it.

"High amount of magnetism... a parasite, perhaps... technology? No... maybe a slow killer -"

"What?" Marissa gasped, pulling back. She didn't have any idea what this man was talking about, but she was worried about what he said. Slow killer? Parasite?

"It's got to be some kind of concoction, tell me -" He paused and looked into Marissa's eyes the way a nurse check's a patient's, before he continued speaking very quickly " - have you had any pain in your arm? Nausea? Weak bones?"

"No."

"Dizziness, feeling faint, muscle weakness?"

"No." Marissa was starting to get annoyed. The Doctor grabbed her by the bracelet and raised her arm to look at it.

"Shortness of breath after short examples of exercise, well, you are American so I'm sure -"

"Okay," Marissa yelled indignantly, ripping her arm out of his grasp, "I will have you know that in high school I was on the drum line, which requires beating a heavy drum while marching in time with the drum over your shoulders which I guarantee you can't do. I also scored the lead in three different musicals and four plays including Belle in _Beauty and the Beast_ and the Stage Manager in _Our Town._ Do you even know how many lines that is? And don't even get me _started_ on the songs!"

The Doctor made a side glance at Rose, who was trying not to laugh. Nathan was just staring.

"High notes, low notes, the dancing that comes with it - I learned how to do the Tango: Maureen before I knew what the quadratic formula was! And all I want is this stupid ink off my arm but you're not helping, all you're doing is making jabs at my heritage and trying to piss me off! I didn't even want to come to Britain, I came to find some guy who apparently has powers but when I got to his house all I got was a stupid parasite and a really annoying Brit and I'm not even going to BRING UP the captain. Just get this stuff off my arm!"

Suddenly Marissa's eyes blurred. Her sight went black at the edges and her knees buckled. Someone shouted her name as she tipped back, and thin arms caught her before she hit the floor.

"Marissa? Are you okay?"

Marissa blinked her eyes open, and her eyesight was back. Rose was leaning over her, and Nathan was the one that caught her.

"Come on, speak to me."

"Look at her arm," Nathan said. Marissa wanted to tell him to shut up, but she was more interested in what was wrong with her arm.

The Doctor pointed the light at her again, closer to her shoulder. Marissa rolled up her short sleeve a bit more and saw that the ink stretched up to her shoulder now.

"What happened?"

"It stopped now," The Doctor said, pulling her up to a sitting position to face him. "Marissa, what was the name of the person you were looking for?"

"Um..." She glanced at Nathan. He shrugged. "We didn't get a name. Ask Jack who lived in that house we were in."

The Doctor stood up. "Jack!"

"Yeah?"

"Who lived in that house?"

"A man named Butch Taylor," Jack said coming back into the room. He pointed a remote at the blank wall and clicked it. A man appeared on it. Marissa looked for a projector but didn't see one. "He was 38 years old. Single, no kids, one sister."

Butch was incredibly large, white, and had black tattoos lining him. The picture was shoulders up, shirtless, showing his rippling muscles. Marissa could already tell he had a six-pack even though she couldn't see past his pecs. His face was scrunched, and he had a dark crew cut.

The tattoos were the things that were remembered. One, on his left shoulder, was a bird in flight. His right arm had a tattoo that spiraled up his shoulder and went in three stripes down his chest. He was tan, and scowling at the camera in front of a white backdrop.

"He looked friendly," Rose commented. "Is he scowling or is that his _actual_ face?"

"Some kind of birth defect. Why were you going to talk to him?"

"The people just said 'Go to Britain, find this man, question him on his talents.'"

"Who were the people?"

Nathan shrugged. Marissa jumped in.

"Hack Nathan's computer's browser history, go to his email, and you should be able to see the messages."

Jack yelled into the glass room. "Eloise, hack Nathan Strauss' computer."

"On it!" she shouted back and began typing furiously on her computer.

"Wait!" Nathan said, but it was too late. The history was up on the wall.

"What are those websites on the bottom?" Rose asked. Marissa leaned in.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me."

Nathan reddened like a tomato. Marissa scoffed. Jack grinned and the Doctor looked a little confused.

"I get... _frustrated,_ sometimes."

"The kind of frustrated that makes you need to see two guys -"

"I believe we were looking for my email, correct?" Nathan said loudly. Rose and Marissa tried to stop laughing, and Eloise clicked on the email account.

"The last email was sent from a source called _The Unknowns."_

"Where do they set up?"

"There's nothing about them," Eloise yelled out. "Their IP address goes through twelve different servers and reroutes all over the place. It would take hours to reach them."

"Can you give us anything?"

"Well, Taylor has a sister that works at the Shard," Eloise said. "That'd be his go to at this time of day."

"Alright," The doctor said in loud voice. "Time to go to the Shard!"

"What's the Shard?" Marissa shouted, following the Brits to the blue box.

"Tallest building in London!" Rose yelled, going inside of it after the Doctor.

"And how are planning to get there by going inside..." Marissa trailed off.

The blue box was maybe three feet wide on all sides. On the outside, at least. On the inside, however, it was huge. There was metal stairs that lead up to a octagonal platform with a large control panel in the middle. The panel had lots of buttons and switches and large, clear white tubes stretching to the ceiling and beyond. The walls were like a dome, with octagons engraved in rows. The place was dim, the walls tan. There were a couple of corridors stretching away from it.

Marissa stood stock still. Rose smiled at her.

"Yes?"

"It's... it's bigger on the inside!"

Rose laughed. "Yep, now come on!"

Marissa walked in quickly, and Jack entered from behind.

"Ah, the good old TARDIS."

Nathan followed in afterward, and stopped at the front. "Holy crap. It's smaller on the outside!"

The Doctor and Rose looked at him weird. "That's not what people say."

Marissa glared at him. "You had one job."

"And off we go!" The Doctor said, throwing a lever to the side. The whole room rumbled, the tubes moved up and down, and the grinding sound returned. Marissa grabbed onto the center console and tried to stay prepared for whatever was ahead.


	4. Chapter 4

Rose was laughing as the group held on desperately. Marissa could barely breathe, but she was at least better than Nathan. He was white in the face and holding onto the rail in the back. Captain Jack slapped his hand on Nathan's shoulder and Nathan flinched.

Marissa looked at the Doctor who was just starting at her, and then the rumbling stopped, and the grinding sound came back on.

The Doctor grinned at her and ran to the door. Rose followed hurriedly, but Jack had to personally guide Nathan. He was paralyzed. Marissa ran ahead of them and opened to the door after the Doctor and Rose.

What was breathtaking was that they weren't in that techy room anymore. They were outside.

They were on a street. Obviously it was busy, because there were people all over. Marissa found herself staring at a gigantic building. Its walls were made of glass and came to a point at the top. It dwarfed all the other buildings. Marissa blinked at it, and Nathan came out, Jack pushing on his back.

"Come on, things only get weirder from here."

The Doctor ran up to her from in front. 

"The Shard, tallest building in London."

"It's going to take forever to find her in that building," Rose said, coming onto Marissa's other side.

"I'm sure there's a way we can find her at the front desk," Marissa said, leading the way. Jack put his hand on Nathan's back and led him behind a few yards.

Marissa came in and walked up to the secretary, a pretty black woman with her hair tied in a bun. She glanced at them and then looked in disgust at the ink covering Marissa's arm.

"Hi," Jack said, flashing his eyes at her. "Do you know where we can find -" he glanced at the paper in his hand " - Maya Taylor?"

The secretary blushed, then typed something into the computer.

"Fourth floor."

"Thank you," Jack said, and led the way to the elevator, the secretary looking hopelessly after him.

The elevator dinged on every floor, and Marissa stood squished between a fat man on the left and Rose on the right, who looked like she was going to slap the twig of a woman next to her.

The elevator reached the third floor and nearly everyone got off of it. It was just the five of them when the doors started closing, but a hand with thick fingers stuck between it, stopping it from closing.

"Excuse me..."

Marissa barely heard him, but recognized him. She breathed in sharply, but the Doctor grabbed her hand and squeezed, silently telling her to be still.

It was Butch Taylor.

Marissa took a step away, leaning against the walla and trying to hide her arm behind her. Butch didn't even look at her twice but wrung his fingers as he waited. He looked ridiculously nervous.

Marissa couldn't wait for the doors to open again, and when they did the Doctor led the way out and directly to the left. Butch walked to the right, his eyes peeled, and Marissa and the others followed the Doctor.

Marissa exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding, and felt her head go fuzzy. She leaned against the wall for support and felt her side get cooler. Nathan grabbed her as she slipped and her head cleared just as suddenly as it had ached.

"What was that?" Nathan said, looking at her in concern she didn't think he had. The Doctor, Rose, and Jack just stared.

Marissa's side was still cold, aching almost. She pulled up her shirt, and to her dismay the black ink had spread down her shoulder and spiraled like a web down her side and halfway across her stomach.

The doctor pushed his way to the front and directed his little device at the ink again.

"When did this spread?"

"I don't know," Marissa said, toughing it gingerly. It was like a tattoo. "In the elevator, I guess."

"Strange..." The Doctor bit his lip, looking ridiculous and almost creepy.

Marissa pulled her shirt down looked at Nathan, who was staring. She slapped him on the chest, and he stumbled back.

Jack caught him, but before they could do anything Rose tapped them on the shoulder, nodding across the office at an open-walled office, the walls a sound proof glass. The door was marked "Taylor".

Everyone exchanged looks, and Marissa spoke up.

"It'd probably be easier if we did this with only one or two people."

The Doctor nodded and gestured for Rose to follow him. As they started walking across the office, Marissa grabbed his arm.

"I came here for my story, I'm getting my story."

Rose backed off and Marissa passed her, knocking and entering the room.

"Miss Taylor?"

As Marissa entered, a young man stood up from a chair in front. It was Butch again. Marissa stiffened, trying not to convey anything.

He slid past her, and she walked in, the Doctor trailing. They sat down in the front. There was a great view of the city behind her, since the entire wall was a window.

"How can I help you?" Maya asked. She had caramel blonde hair and tan skin. She seemed flustered, like her last meeting had not gone well.

"Hi, I'm Marissa Carpenter," Marissa started. "I'm an American journalist, and I wanted to talk to you about your brother."

"Les?"

"We meant Butch."

"Oh, right, I forgot he went by that," Maya said, chuckling. "His real name is Leslie?"

"Really?" the Doctor exclaimed, laughing. Marissa shot him a glare.

"Yes. Anyway, we visited his house and he wasn't there."

"I'm aware of that."

"Do you know anything about..." Marissa searched for a broad enough term to use, "... condition?"

"What do you mean, _condition?"_

"We heard tell of a special kind of virus going around," the Doctor said, breaking in. "Now, there's no guarantee your brother has it but if he does we need to treat it as quickly as possible."

"I haven't spoken to him in ages."

Marissa and the Doctor exchanged looks, the same thought going through each of their heads. "When was the last time you did?"

"A few weeks ago, at a... family thing."

"We didn't think he had any family."

"Well, he doesn't," Maya said, tapping her fingers against the desk. "I's just me and our uncle."

"Who's your uncle?"

There was knock at the glass wall. The door clicked open and Butch leaned in.

"Maya, I -"

He stopped short and stared at Marissa, who stared back. She was less scared, more nervous. He wasn't staring at the places she'd expect. He was staring at her arm.

"That's an... interesting tattoo."

Marissa rubbed her arm subconsciously. "Yeah... it's, uh, new..."

Butch looked like he was struggling internally. Marissa felt her face heat up and turned back to Maya.

"Is there a way we could get in touch with your brother?"

Maya gave herself away by glancing at Butch. The Doctor hadn't looked away yet. Butch's face grew beet red, and the Doctor grabbed Marissa's ink covered arm, lifting her up.

"I actually think we better get going."

"Don't touch her there." Butch angry and terrified. "You can't touch her there."

Marissa pulled her arm out of his grip and stepped away. Butch relaxed a little, but he was still tense. As he took a step forward, Marissa made a shocking revelation - 

The ink was moving.

As Butch moved, it moved. The fine lines sharpened, and blurred, then sharpened again as he moved. The ink on his neck started spiraling up his face. Marissa gasped and stepped back, and the Doctor pulled out his stick, pointing it in Butch's face. Marissa looked through the glass and saw Rose and Jack running away, Nathan watching in horror. 

The Doctor looked at Maya. "Run."

She didn't need telling twice. Sliding the wheeled chair back, she stood and ran out of the office.

Marissa felt a coolness on her leg and pulled up her skirt to see the ink spreading yet again. Butch took another step forward and held out his hand in a calming manner, though he was anything but.

"Don't -"

Marissa didn't here the rest of it. Something shot at her, and it felt like a rock as it grazed her left shoulder, striking the wall behind her. Violently, she turned to the right, and a large explosion occurred behind her. She was thrown to the side and hit something hard, something that broke. She fell back to the floor, but didn't hit the floor, instead feeling wind on and around her face.

Marissa was falling.


End file.
